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First  Presbyterian  Church 


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BX  8947  .M3  T86  1906 

;^^;  Two  hundredth  anniversary  o 
the  organization  of  the 


1706 


1906 


TWO  HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  THE 

(i^gant^atton  of  t!)e 
53resb^terian  Cfjurcl) 

IN  THE 

UNITED   STATES   OF  AMERICA 


jfirsit   ^res;tiptetian   Cfjutcf) 

in  Baltimore,  JEti. 


WEDNESDAY,  MAY  SIXTEENTH, 
NINETEEN    HUNDRED  AND   SIX 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  COMMITTEE 
ON  HISTORICAL  RECORDS  OF  THE 
.  .  PRESBYTERY  OF  BALTIMORE  .  . 


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Division  L^ sJ^O  •  O 


1706 


1906 


TWO  HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF  THE 

(2^tgani^ation  of  tf)e 
^^resib^terian  €f)nxt\) 

IN  THE 

UNITED   STATES   OF  AMERICA 


in  3Salttmore»  JEti. 


WEDNESDAY,  MAY  SIXTEENTH, 
NINETEEN    HUNDRED   AND   SIX 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE  COMMITTEE 
ON  HISTORICAL  RECORDS  OF  THE 
.  .  PRESBYTERY  OF  BALTIMORE  .  . 


^QRESBYTERIANISM  is  a  church  government  by  representa- 
'^^  tive  assemblies  or  courts,  viz. :  Sessions,  Presbyteries, 
Synods  and  General  Assembly,  composed  of  Presbyters  or 
Elders,  Ruling  and  Teaching,  called  by  the  Spirit  of  God  and 
elected  by  the  people. 


impm-taitt  lEbpitta  in  prfsbytfrtan  l^iatory: 

B.  C.  1533. — Moses  commanded  to  convene  the  elders  of  Israel  in  Egypt." 

B.  C.  1490. — Moses  commanded  to  gather  seventj'  elders  to  assist  him  in 
the  government. 

B.  C.  1140. — The  elders  of  Israel  ask  for  a  King. 

A.  D.  53. — The  Apostles  and  elders  of  Jerusalem  decide  that  circumcision 
is  not  in  force  in  the  Christian  church. 

A.  D.      65. — Timothy's  ordination  by  a  Presbytery. 

A.  D.      96. — Four  and  twenty  elders  sitting  around  the  throne  in  heaven. 

A.  D.  1560. — First  General  Assembly  met  in  Edinburgh. 

A.  D.  1628. — First  Reformed  Dutch  (Presbyterian)  Church  founded  in  New 
Amsterdam,  no"w  New  York. 

A.  D.  1643. — General  Assembly  met  in  Westminster  Abbey.  London,  to  pre- 
pare Confession  of  Faith,  Catechisms,  Discipline,  and  Direc- 
tory of  Worship. 

A.  D.  1644. — Presbyterian  congregation  in  charge  of  Mr.  Denton  at  Hemp- 
stead, L.  I..  N.  Y. 

A.  D.  16S4. — Rev.  Francis  Makemie  organized  Snow  Hill  and  Rehobotli 
churches  in  Maryland. 

A.  D.  1701. — Rev.  Jedediah  Andrews  ordained  pastor  at  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

A.  D.  1706. — First  Presbytery  organized  in  Philadelphia  with  Francis 
Makemie,  Moderator. 

A.  D.  1706. — Ordination  of  John  Boyd,  at  Freehold.  N.  J. 

A.  D.  1717. — Synod  of  Philadelphia  organized  with  three  Presbyteries: 
Philadelphia,  Newcastle  and  Long  Island. 

A.  D.  1761. — First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Baltimore  organized. 

A.  D.  1789. — First  General  Assembly  in  the  United  States,  composed  of  the 
Synods  of  New  iork,  Philadelphha,  New  Jersey  and  Vir- 
ginia, met  in  Philadelphia  with  Rev.  John  Witherspoon, 
D.D.,  as  Moderator. 


•The  dates  of  the  Bible  events  of  this  catalogue  can  only  be  approximate; 
the  facts  alone  are  important. 


53rogramme 


■Wednesday.    May    16th,   7  •.■45   P.   M. 

The  Rev.  John  P.  Campbell,  D.D Presiding 

Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  and 
Pastor  of  Faith  Presbyterian  Churcli  in  Baltimore,  Md. 

ioxology. 

ilnfaorattan The  Rev.  John  B.  Wilson,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  First  United  Presbyterian  Churcli  in  Baltimore. 

S^gmn,  No.   139,  verses  1-4.     (Tune  Coronation.) 

g>tri;rturp  ffiifBBon The  Rev.  Robert  P.  Kerr,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  Northniinster  Presbyterian  Church  in  Baltimore. 

l^rautr The  Rev.  W.  H.  Woods,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  Franklin  Square  Presbyterian  Church,  Baltimore, 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States. 

Antl;rm. 

AbllrfBB Early  Presbyterianism  in  Maryland, 

The  Rev.  James  William  McIlvain,  D.D. 

Secretary  of  the  Maryland  Tract  Society. 

!]|ymn.  No.  116,  verses  1-4.     (Tune  Dundee,  No.  87.) 

A&brfBB, Presbyterianism 

The  Rev.  Charles  Wood,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  in  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

I^gmn,  No.  300.     (Tune  Shirland.) 


Srnrbirtian The  Rev.  Henry  Branch,  D.D. 

Pastor  of  thi 

State 


Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Ellicott  City,  Md.,  and 
Stated  Clerk  of  the  Presbytery  of  Baltimore. 


(domtnittrr  of  ArrangEmptita 

apfiauitrb  by 
31ie  ^rPBbgtprg  of  SaltimnrP: 

REV.  JOHN  P.  CAMPBELL,  D.D.  REV.  JAMES  E.  MOPFATT,  D.D. 

REV.  ROBERT  P.  KERR,  D.D.  REV.  JOHN  TIMOTHY  STONE. 

REV.  HENRY  BRANCH,  D.D.  REV.  JOHN  WYNNE  JONES,  D.D. 

REV.  JAMES  WM.  McILVAIN,  D.D.      REV.  SAMUEL  C.  WASSON. 

ELDER  WILLIAM  REYNOLDS. 

ELDER    SAMUEL   M.    RANKIN. 

ELDER  GEORGE  R.  CAIRNES. 

ELDER  C.  S.  DAVIS. 

ELDER   JOHN  T.   HILL. 


(Cammttter  an  S^iatortral  ScrDrba: 

REV.  JOHN  P.  CAMPBELL,  D.D. 
REV.  HENRY  BRANCH,   D.D. 
REV.  E.  D.  NEWBERRY. 
REV.  T.  W.  PULHAM. 


Carl^  ^Pfesibpteriantsitn  in  ;^ar^lanti. 

Rev.   J.  W.   McILVAIN,  D.  D. 

t^*       (5*       ^* 

HE  purpose  of  this  paper  is  not  to  prove  that  the 
earliest  Presbyterianism  in  the  United  States 
originated  in  Maryland.  There  is  "a  very  pretty 
quarrel"  going  on  just  now  as  to  which  colony 
may  claim  the  original  Presbyterian  Church  of  the 
Scotch-Genevan  type.  It  reminds  one  of  the 
classic  story  of  how  many  of  the  cities  of  Greece  contended  for  the 
honor  of  being  the  birthplace  of  Homer,  the  blind  bard.  As  in 
that  case  so  now  there  is  a  great  deal  of  assertion,  a  great  deal  of 
historical  imagination,  but  very  little  solid  documentary  evidence. 
We  only  claim  and  we  think  that  we  can  easily  prove  that  there 
were  Presbyterians  in  Maryland  at  a  very  early  date,  very  possibly 
from  the  foundation  of  the  colony.  Henry  More,  the  Jesuit  father 
who  accompanied  the  colonists  writes,  "In  leading  the  colony  to 
Maryland  by  far  the  greater  part  were  heretics."  He  says  also  of 
the  Assembly  of  1638  that  it  was  "composed  with  few  exceptions 
of  heretics."  The  large  part  of  the  early  settlers  were  poor  per- 
sons, who  came  largely  from  London,  then  the  stronghold  of  Pres- 
byterianism. 

In  1649  we  know  there  were  Presbyterians  here,  because  the 
famous  Act  of  Toleration  forbade  calling  a  person  a  Presbyterian 
"as  a  term  of  reproach."  How  could  this  term  of  reproach  be 
used,  if  there  were  no  Presbyterians  in  the  colony?  We  are  glad 
to  note  that  there  is  no  longer  any  necessity  for  such  a  law  in 
Maryland.  I  remark  also  that  the  engrosser  of  this  law  writes 
the  word  PresPITerian.  But  they  were  very  weak  in  spelling  in 
those  days,  and  moreover  the  ignorant  clerk  may  have  been  "an 
infidel,  Papist  or  other  idolator." 

A  word  in  passing  as  to  this  celebrated  Act  of  Toleration, 
which,  like  St.  Patrick,  is  claimed  both  by  the  Protestants  and 
the  Roman  Catholics.  It  is  claimed  by  the  Protestants  because 
tliey  had  a  majority  of  votes  in  die  Assembly  which  passed  the 


Act,  which  is  true  and  so  far  to  their  credit.  It  is  claimed  by  the 
Roman  CathoHcs,  because  Lord  Baltimore,  who  was  undoubtedly 
the  author  of  the  law  in  its  main  features,  was  a  Roman  Catholic. 
This  is  true  also,  but  Lord  Baltimore  was  much  more  than  a 
Roman  Catholic,  even  of  a  very  liberal  type.  He  was  a  man  of 
affairs  and  the  Lord  Proprietary  of  the  colony.  What  his  feelings 
were  is  shown  by  documents  of  the  time  and  by  his  own  letters. 
He  was  sincerely  religious,  and  therefore  brought  out  Jesuit 
fathers  with  the  first  colony.  But  he  soon  quarreled  with  them 
because,  as  usual,  they  interfered  with  the  government  and  tried 
to  acquire  large  grants  of  lands  from  the  Indians  without  his 
approval.  He  was  anxious  to  counterbalance  the  influence  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  by  offsetting  a  number  of  Protestant  settlers. 
Hence,  an  act  of  toleration,  where  both  churches  were  placed  on 
an  equality.  Moreover,  the  political  and  religious  situation  in 
England  forbade  any  other  policy.  The  Puritan  Parliament  had 
sent  Archbishop  Laud  to  the  scaffold  for  attempting  to  re-estab- 
lish Popery  in  England,  and  had  disestablished  prelacy  and  made 
Presbytery  the  established  church  of  England.  Any  thing  more 
than  bare  toleration  for  Catholicism  was  impossible  under  the 
circumstances.  Lord  Baltimore  had  the  worldly  wisdom  to  see 
this,  as  none  of  the  churches  of  his  day  saw  it.  "The  children  of 
this  world  are  in  their  generation  wiser  than  the  children  of 
light."  Let  him  have  due  credit  for  this,  although  he  may  have 
been  only  the  unconscious  instrument  of  Providence  in  asserting 
a  great  principle.  But  let  us  also  remember  that  he  did  this  not 
because  he  was  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  a  shrewd  statesman,  who 
saw,  from  the  very  beginning,  that  religious  toleration  was  the 
only  possible  policy  for  his  colony.  He  promised  this  to  the  first 
settlers  and  he  kept  his  word. 

Maryland  had  the  honor  of  receiving  and  cherishing  the  first 
Presbyterian  minister  who  ever  came  from  the  British  Isles  to 
America.  This  was  Rev.  Francis  Doughty.  His  history  is  a  sort 
of  epitome  of  the  religious  history  of  the  times.  Turned  out  of 
the  Church  of  England  because  he  was  too  much  of  a  Presbyterian, 
he  was  also  turned  out  of  Taunton,  Massachusetts,  whither  he  had 
fled,  because  his  views  did  not  agree  with  those  of  the  Inde- 
pendents. Next  he  came  to  New  Amsterdam.  He  is  believed  to 
have  been  the  first  minister  to  hold  a  service  in  English  in  what  is 
now  New  York.  But  there  he  got  into  trouble  again,  or  as  a 
contemporary  author  puts  it,  "He  had  gotten  out  of  the  frying 
pan  into  the  fire."     We  fear  that  Doughty  was  too  much  of  a 


fighting  parson,  a  genus  not  unknown  in  the  history  of  our 
beloved  church.  This  time  it  was  politics  that  interfered  with  his 
usefulness.  So  after  a  taste  of  prison  life  under  charge  of  debt 
he  came  somewhere  about  1656  into  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Vir- 
ginia and  Maryland.  He  lived  in  this  colony  and  found  peace 
here;  and  not  merely  peace,  but  a  wife,  sister  of  Governor  Stone, 
and  a  nice  piece  of  property  at  Nanjemoy,  Charles  County.  He 
went  about  preaching  and  baptizing.  Whether  he  ever  organized 
a  church  is  uncertain,  but  if  he  did  he  would  have  done  so  after 
the  Presbyterian  pattern.  His  sermons  and  services  were  at  least 
Presbyterian,  and  he  must  have  been  a  great  help  to  Protestantism 
in  Maryland.  For,  so  far  as  is  known,  he  was  not  only  the  first 
Presbyterian  minister,  but  the  first  ordained  Protestant  minister 
in  the  colony. 

The  next  Presbyterian  minister  who  came  to  Maryland  was 
Rev.  Matthew  Hill.  He  is  better  known  to  us  than  Doughty,  be- 
cause his  history  is  given  in  Calamy's  Non-Conformist's  Memorial, 
and  because  we  have  an  interesting  letter  of  his  written  from 
Charles  County  to  the  celebrated  Richard  Baxter,  giving  us  an 
account  of  his  work.  He  was  a  native  of  York,  England,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Magdalen  College,  Cambridge,  and  a  noted  Hebrew  scholar. 
He  was  ejected  from  his  living  after  the  Restoration  and  was  very 
poor.  His  relations  urged  his  conformit}-,  but  nothing  could  make 
him  violate  his  conscience.  He  lost  what  little  he  had  in  the  great 
fire  in  London,  1666.  After  that  he  "embarked  for  the  West 
Indies,"  meaning,  in  this  instance,  Maryland.  Here  he  arrived 
about  1669.  He  writes  April  3,  1669,  to  Baxter,  who  was  evi- 
dently the  means  of  sending  him  out,  "I  am  sure  that  the  blessing 
of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  doth  reach  you  even  at  this  dis- 
tance ;  what  you  have  lost  in  your  purse  I  hope  you  will  regain  in 
a  better  place."  He  speaks  of  his  congregation  as  "a  willing  and 
loving  people."  He  mentions  the  fact  that  "under  his  lordship's 
government  we  enjoy  a  great  deal  of  liberty,  and  particularly  in 
matters  of  religion."  He  speaks  of  the  large  number  of  those  of 
the  reformed  faith  and  adds  that  "they  have  no  fondness  for  the 
liturgy  or  ceremonies,"  a  fact  which  Lord  Baltimore  himself 
states  in  a  letter  in  1677  to  the  Privy  Council.  He  begs  for  some 
ministers  to  be  sent  out  to  a  people  who  are  "like  sheep  without  a 
shepherd."  He  begs  also  very  naturally  for  some  books  for  him- 
self, which  request  Baxter  seems  to  have  granted,  for  in  Hill's  in- 
ventory we  find  that  he  possessed  a  library  of  some  seventy  vol- 
umes, a  fine  colonial  library  and  a  good  one  for  a  home  missionar)- 


even  in  those  days.  He  married  Edith,  daughter  of  Walter  Bayne, 
a  lady  who  had  previously  wedded  Jonathan  Maries  in  a  wonder- 
ful fashion,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  the  marriage  vows  of 
the  Quakers.  The  document  is  still  preserved,  and  is  a  strange 
mixture  of  love  and  theology.  He  had  a  fine  estate  also,  called 
Popleton,  near  Port  Tobacco,  Charles  County.  But  he  had  fresh 
troubles.  Theological  controversies  were  then  peculiarly  bitter, 
and  he  became  involved  in  such  with  the  Quakers  who  came  in 
large  numbers  to  Maryland  on  account  of  its  religious  freedom, 
and  who  thought  it  their  duty  to  denounce  all  "hireling  ministers," 
whether  Prelatists  or  Presbyterians.  He  labored  here  about  ten 
years,  dying  in  1679.  As  he  had  no  successor,  it  is  difficult  to  esti- 
mate the  amount  of  his  work,  but  everything  we  know  of  him 
shows  him  to  have  been  a  gentle  and  scholarly  Christian. 

A  blank  now  occurs  in  the  annals  of  Maryland  Presbyterianism 
up  to  the  arrival  of  Makemie  and  Traill,  which  is  filled  in,  in  part 
at  least,  by  the  elder,  Ninian  Beall.  Wherever  there  is  a  Session, 
there  is  a  church,  and  Ninian  Beall  represents  such  a  Session.  He 
is  almost  certainly  the  "ancient  and  comely  man,  an  elder  among 
the  Presbyterians"  who  entertained  Thomas  Wilson,  the  famous 
Quaker  preacher  in  1692.  Beall  is  an  interesting  character,  a 
typical  American.  He  was  not  a  Scottish  gentleman,  as  a  very 
unreliable  legend  would  have  it,  but,  as  he  says  himself  plainly  in 
a  law  case,  an  indentured  servant  who  came  to  Maryland  in  1657. 
He  rose  to  great  wealth,  owned  iron  furnaces  and  flour  mills  and 
died  one  of  the  richest  men  in  the  province.  He  and  Doughty 
came  to  Maryland  about  the  same  time.  But  he  long  survived 
him  and  died  in  1717,  aged  92.  Thus  he  saw  the  feeble  beginning, 
and  lived  to  see  the  single  unorganized  church  grow  into  a  strong 
synod  of  three  presbyteries.  How  much  we  owe  to  his  fostering 
hand  we  can  only  conjecture.  He  gave  generously  land  to  the 
church  at  Marlboro  and  a  very  handsome  communion  service  still 
used  by  the  church  at  Hyattsville.  He  was  the  first  Presbyterian 
elder  in  America  of  whom  we  know,  and  in  a  way  may  dispute 
with  Makemie  the  claim  to  be  the  founder  of  American  Presbyter- 
ianism. 

And  yet  it  seems  to  us  that  it  is  to  Makemie  that  the  honor 
belongs,  because  he  was  the  man  who  organized  Presbyterianism 
in  this  country  and  gave  it  a  firm  foundation.  There  can  be  no 
Presbyterianism  that  is  not  organized  that  really  deserves  the 
name.  This  Makemie  felt,  and  hence  he  went  to  work  to  accom- 
plish this  great  end.    Makemie  was  not  the  first  Presbyterian  min- 


ister  in  Maryland  nor  in  America.  He  was  not  even  the  first 
Presbyterian  minister  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.  Doughty 
had  preached  there,  for  we  find  him  as  early  as  1656  just  across 
the  border  in  Accomac  County,  Va.  There  was  also  a  Puritan 
preacher,  whether  Presbyterian  or  not  we  know  not,  with  the 
remarkable  name  which  a  Dickens  would  have  rejoiced  to  use,  of 
Ezekiel  Fogg.  He  lived  and  preached  in  Dorchester  County,  near 
the  Great  Choptank.  He  has  left  us  a  will  which  is  by  no  means  a 
dreary  legal  document,  but  a  witty  piece  of  writing.  Of  his 
clerical  work  we  have  only  a  bare  record.  Makemie,  however, 
though  he  builded  on  other  men's  foundations,  did  a  far  greater 
work  than  any  before  him.  He  saw  that  Presbyterians  must  be 
organized  if  they  were  not  to  lapse  on  the  one  hand  into  Indepen- 
dency or  be  swallowed  up  b}-  the  Episcopal  Church,  which  was 
now  being  established  on  very  liberal  terms  in  most  of  the  colonies. 
He  came  from  the  strictest  kind  of  Presbyterians,  the  Scotch- 
Irish.  He  was  born  near  Rathmelton,  County  Donegal,  Ireland, 
about  1660.  He  appears  as  a  student  in  Glasgow  in  1676.  He  was 
examined  in  1681  and  ordained  in  1682  by  the  Presbytery  of 
Laggan,  Ireland,  to  go  as  a  minister  to  America.  Col.  William 
Stevens  in  Maryland,  beside  Virginia,  had  written  from  Somerset 
County  for  a  godly  minister.  Traill,  the  moderator  of  the  Presby- 
tery, had  fled  to  Maryland  himself  during  the  persecutions  under 
James  II.  Makemie  arrived  in  Somerset  County  in  1683.  His 
labors  were  truly  apostolic.  He  shortly  left  for  Virginia  and 
preached  to  the  Puritans  there  of  Elizabeth  River  in  1684.  He 
traveled  extensively,  preaching  as  far  south  as  the  Barbadoes  and 
as  far  north  as  New  England.  He  preached  in  New  York,  where 
he  was  most  unjustly  tried  and  fined  by  Lord  Cornbury,  the  gov- 
ernor. In  order  to  support  himself  in  these  extensive  and  ex- 
pensive joumeyings  he,  like  the  Apostle  Paul,  engaged  in  trade. 
But  wherever  he  went  he  labored  earnestly  and  preached  con- 
stantly. He  returned  to  Maryland  in  i6go  and  settled  near  the 
border  line  of  Maryland  and  Virginia.  He  married  and  became 
in  1691  the  pastor  of  the  church  at  Rehoboth.  He  soon  left  for 
Philadelphia,  and  thence  went  to  the  Barbadoes,  where  he  lived 
several  years.  In  1698  he  returned  to  the  Eastern  Shore  and  re- 
mained there  until  his  death  in  1708. 

Makemie's  dream  was  to  organize  a  Presbytery.  To  this  end 
he  was  in  correspondence  with  godly  ministers  on  both  sides  of 
the  water.  It  is  interesting  to  note  through  Makemie's  corres- 
pondence with  Increase  Mather  the  interest  the  Boston  ministers 


took  in  Presbyterianism.  In  the  summer  of  1704  he  went  abroad  to 
obtain  aid  from  the  Presbyterians  of  England  and  Scotland.  The 
Presbyterian  ministers  of  London  raised  funds  to  aid  him,  and  two 
years  later  he  sailed  for  America  with  two  young  men,  John 
Hampton,  an  Irishman,  and  George  McNish,  a  Scotchman.  These 
he  sent  to  labor  in  his  old  field  in  Somerset  County.  In  the  spring 
of  1706  occurred  the  event  which  we  are  now  celebrating,  the 
organization  of  the  first  Presbytery  in  America,  the  Presbytery  of 
Philadelphia.  It  is  of  interest  to  us  to  note  that  of  the  seven  men 
who  formed  the  first  Presbytery,  five  were  then,  or  had  been, 
laboring  in  Maryland — Makemie,  Hampton,  McNish,  Nathaniel 
Taylor,  who  was  the  pastor  at  Patuxent  or  Upper  Marlboro,  and 
Davis,  who  had  been  the  pastor  at  Snow  Hill.  If  Makemie  is 
called  the  father  of  American  Presbyterianism,  surely  Maryland 
was  its  cradle. 

This  will  appear  more  evident  if  we  give  the  list  of  the  Presby- 
terian ministers  who  were  Makemie"s  fellow-laborers.  This  sur- 
vey must  be  hasty  and  we  can  only  give  a  few  dates  and  facts. 
First  comes  William  Traill,  a  Scotchman,  who  was  thrown  in 
prison  for  preaching  in  Ireland.  Upon  his  release  in  1682  he  came 
at  once  to  Maryland,  invited  by  Col.  William  Stevens.  He  settled 
near  Rehoboth,  and  was  probably  the  first  pastor  of  that  church. 
After  the  revolutions  of  1688  he  returned  in  1690  to  Scotland,  and 
was  minister  at  Borthwick,  near  Edinboro.  He  was  the  moderator 
of  the  Presbytery  which  sent  Makemie  to  America. 

Next  comes  Thomas  Wilson,  who  came  hither  from  County 
Donegal,  Ireland.  We  find  him  here  as  early  as  1681,  when  Col. 
William  Stevens  gave  him  a  grant  of  land.  He  was  the  founder 
and  first  pastor  of  the  Manokin  Church,  Princess  Anne.  He  lived 
here  about  twenty  years,  but  we  know  little  of  that  life  outside  of 
certain  legal  documents  of  the  time  and  an  address  to  King  Wil- 
liam III,  congratulating  him  on  his  escape  from  assassination. 
His  brother,  Ephraim  K.  Wilson,  sheriff  of  Somerset  County,  left 
many  descendants,  among  whom  is  Ephraim  K.  Wilson,  late  U. 
S.  Senator. 

The  next  name  is  that  of  Samuel  Davis,  one  of  the  first  mem- 
bers of  Presbytery.  His  record  is,  in  some  respects,  more  amusing 
than  edifying,  but  the  historian  must  give  facts  as  he  finds  them. 
Davis  was  an  Irishman.  He  came  to  Maryland  as  early  as  1684, 
or  possibly  1678.  He  lived  on  St.  Martin's  Creek,  southeast  side 
of  Pocomoke  River.  He  was  the  pastor,  probably  also  founder,  of 
the  church  at  Snow  Hill.    He  and  a  Church  of  England  minister. 


Brechan  got  themselves  into  a  sad  pickle  on  one  occasion.  Squire 
Layfield  gave  a  grand  Christmas  entertainment  in  1697.  He  had  re- 
cently become  a  widower,  and  one  of  the  guests  proposed  that  he 
should  be  remarried  by  a  mock  ceremony.  The  ceremony  was 
accordingly  then  performed  with  more  jesting  than  delicacy. 
Unfortunately,  the  lady  chosen  for  the  mock  bride  was  a  niece  of 
the  deceased  wife,  and  both  the  clergymen  were  haled  before  the 
court  for  breaking  the  marriage  laws  of  England.  Then  both  got 
off  on  the  substantial  but  not  very  creditable  plea  that  "several  of 
the  company  were  overtaken  with  drink."  This  will  sound  better 
in  a  temperance  lecture  than  in  a  history  of  the  early  Presbyterian 
heroes.  But  we  have  sworn  testimony  to  the  facts  and  it  is  only 
too  true  a  picture  of  times  when  drunkenness  was  considered  a 
very  venial  fault  even  in  a  minister.  Davis  afterwards  was  pastor 
at  Lewes,  Del.  He  was  one  of  the  ministers  set  apart  to  form  the 
Presbytery  of  Snow  Hill,  which,  however,  never  materialized. 

The  last  of  these  early  Maryland  pastors  whom  we  shall  men- 
tion is  Rev.  Nathaniel  Taylor,  pastor  at  Upper  Marlboro,  Prince 
George's  County.  This  was  Ninian  Beall's  church,  and  a  very 
flourishing  church  in  its  day.  We  know  little  of  Taylor  besides  his 
being  pastor  there  and  the  occurrence  of  his  name  in  several  of  the 
documents  of  the  time.  The  most  interesting  thing,  perhaps,  about 
him,  is  the  catalogue  of  his  library,  found  by  the  writer  in  an  old 
inventory.  There  are  five  hundred  volumes  of  these,  a  splendid 
library  even  for  a  minister  of  the  present  day.  It  is  full  of  the 
Westminister  divines  and  full  also  of  the  philosophical  and  scien- 
tific works  of  the  period,  showing  Taylor  to  have  been  a  very 
scholarly  man.  It  contains  also  a  number  of  Tate  and  Brady's 
hymn  books,  showing  that  our  ancestors  there  did  not  sing  Rouse's 
version,  but  the  one  common  in  England.  Taylor  came  about  1703. 
His  ministry  was  not  a  long  one,  for  he  died  suddenly  in  17 10. 
One  interesting  relic  of  his  mini.stry  is  a  splendid  silver  communion 
service,  now  used  at  Hyattsville,  the  successor  of  the  old  church  at 
Upper  Marlboro. 

From  this  imperfect  sketch  we  find  that  at  the  time  of  the  first 
Presbytery  at  Philadelphia  there  were  at  least  four  flourishing 
Presbyterian  churches  in  Maryland — Upper  Marlboro,  on  the 
Western  Shore,  anfl  Snow  Hill.,  Manokin  and  Rehoboth,  in  Som- 
erset and  Worcester  Counties,  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  There  were 
numerous  Presbyterians  in  Baltimore,  Prince  George's  and  Cecil 
counties,  and  these  were  shortly  afterwards  organized  into 
churches  at  West  Nottingham,  Bladensburg  and  at  Soldier's 
Delight. 


It  seemed  at  that  time  as  if  Maryland  was  destined  to  be  a  great 
Presbyterian  center.    Why  was  it  otherwise? 

I.  Because  the  churches  were  organized  in  oiit-of-the-way 
places,  chiefly  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  Eastern  Shore,  and  none 
in  any  center  of  influence.  There  were  no  towns  of  any  size  in 
Maryland.  Plantation  life  prevailed.  Makemie  was  struck  with 
this,  and  he  had  a  scheme  which  was  to  improve  the  colony  in  this 
respect  called  "A  plain  and  friendly  persuasive  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia  for  promoting  towns  and  cohabitation." 
But  then  no  gentleman,  according  to  the  ideas  then  prevalent  in 
those  colonies,  lived  anywhere  except  on  his  estate,  and  none 
could  engage  in  trade.  So  the  Presbyterian  churches  of  Maryland 
were  left  largely  to  "waste  their  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

II.  But  a  far  more  important  reason  for  the  decline  of  Presby- 
terianism  was  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the 
colony.  This  was  done  in  the  most  thorough  manner.  The  Prot- 
estants, even  the  leading  Presbyterians  were  so  afraid  of  the  R. 
C.  influence  that  they  thought  that  only  an  establishment  could 
counteract  it.  So  they  gave  up  their  freedom  of  worship  and  sub- 
mitted to  an  onerous  establishment  where  everybody  paid  heavy 
tithes  to  the  parsons.  Of  course  these  were  well  provided  for, 
their  salaries  in  some  instances  amounting  to  nearly  £2000  a  year. 
The  Presbyterian  ministers  were  supported  only  by  voluntary  con- 
tributions and  only  the  strongest  in  the  faith  would  pay  heavy 
tithes  and  generous  subscriptions  at  the  same  time.  Another  cause 
perhaps  was  the  moderatism  or  broad  churchism  of  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  Presbyterian  churches  abroad.  When  Whitefield 
preached  in  Southern  Maryland  at  Upper  Marlboro  he  made  this 
sad  record:  "These  parts  are  sunk  into  a  deep  sleep."  So  it  was 
when  the  Methodists  came  with  their  earnest  evangelical  preaching 
they  swept  the  state  from  end  to  end,  gathering  in  Presbyterian 
and  Anglican  alike  into  the  new  fold. 

Yet  Presbyterianism  was  far  from  dead  here.  Witness  the 
conspicuous  part  taken  by  Maryland  Presbyterians  in  the  American 
Revolution.  Many  of  the  founders  of  Baltimore,  to  whom  it  owed 
its  wonderful  growth,  were  Presbyterians.  Witness  this  beautiful 
church  in  which  we  are  assembled.  Witness  the  strong  churches 
of  our  city  and  Presbytery.  Witness  the  new  deaconess  move- 
ment and  many  other  signs,  which  tell  us  that  if  Makemie  and  his 
friends  were  to  come  back  they  would  be  both  surprised  and  de- 
lighted over  the  wonderful  growth  of  their  beloved  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Maryland. 


Rev.  CHARLES   WOOD,  D.  D. 

1^%       fl^*        ^* 


^{^  RESBYTERIANISM  is  the  oldest  and  most  natural 
J  ^  form  of  church  government,"  says  a  sympathetic 
"Tj^  historian,  himself  a  member  of  another  church.  If 
not  as  old  as  sin,  Presbyterianism  may  be  said  to 
be  as  old  as  salvation.  When  God  was  about  to 
save  Israel  from  the  slavery  of  Egypt,  Moses  re- 
ceived Divine  authority  for  the  establishment  of 
Presbyterianism.  Elders  were  associated  with  him  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Israel,  and  the  government  for  three  hundred  years  was 
altogether  Presbyterian  in  the  largest  sense  till  the  misguided 
Elders  demitted  their  office  by  Divine  permission,  but  without 
Divine  command,  in  favor  of  a  Pope-King. 

In  the  Christian  Church  the  word  Elder  no  longer  suggests 
age,  but  is  a  term  signifying  official  position  only.  A  man  like 
Timothy,  with  an  old  head  on  young  shoulders,  was  the  ideal 
Elder  of  the  Apostolic  Church.  The  Bishop  and  Presbyter  were 
identical.  Bishops  like  Lightfoot  and  Ellicott ;  Deans  like  Alford 
and  Stanley ;  Historians  like  Mosheim,  Neander  and  Hatch ; 
Commentators  like  Lange  and  Meyer  are  all  agreed  as  to  this. 
The  two  terms  were  interchangeable  till  the  beginning  of  the 
Third  Century.  The  word  Elder  or  Presbyter  retained  its 
primitive  meaning  some  centuries  longer  in  parts  of  Europe  where 
the  Papal  authority  was  recognized  only  in  a  modified  degree. 
"The  primate  of  the  Church  of  Scotland  for  the  first  three  hundred 
years  was  not  a  Bishop  but  a  Presbyter.  First  the  Abbott  of 
lona,  then  Dunkeld,"  Bede  says,  "consecrated  the  Bishops  they 
sent  to  England."  "They  crowned  kings,  the  prerogative  for 
which  Becket  shed  his  blood  rather  than  concede  to  his  brother 
primate  of  York,"  so  says  Dean  Stanley  in  his  lectures  on  "The 
Church  of  Scotland."  In  the  fastness  of  the  Italian  mountains 
there  were  deep  pools  where  the  face  of  Apostolic  Christianity 


was  alwa)'s  reflected.  Many  of  the  so-called  heretics  who  were 
exterminated  with  fire  and  sword,  like  the  Albigenses  of 
Languedoc,  were  Presbyterians  who  refused  to  submit  to  the 
Papal  yoke. 

At  the  Reformation,  Presbyterianism  leaped  into  prominence 
and  for  a  time  seemed  destined  to  become  the  dominant  type  of 
Reformed  Christianity.  The  story  of  her  triumphs  and  defeats  is 
enough  to  stir  the  most  sluggish  blood.  As  history  "unrolls  her 
long  annals,"  few  more  thrilling  pages  appear  than  those  which 
recount  the  sufferings  and  heroism  of  the  Presbyterians  of 
France — Vaudois  or  Huguenot.  As  we  read  we  become  spectators 
of  a  great  court  Tragedy.  Francis  I  and  many  of  the  proudest 
nobles  of  France  were  attracted  to  the  Presbyterian  form  almost 
to  the  point  of  acceptance.  The  Presbyterian  party  fought  wars, 
held  cities  against  the  seige  of  royal  armies,  and  made  treaties 
with  the  throne.  Heroic  figures  like  Conde,  Coligny  and  Mont- 
morency, Constable  of  France,  move  across  the  stage  towards 
the  awful  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  Da}'.  When  Louis  XIV, 
in  1685,  revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  Protestants  fled  for  their 
lives  whenever  it  was  possible  to  escape  the  cordon  of  soldiers 
guarding  the  frontier.  So  France  by  her  bigoted  folly  skimmed 
the  cream  from  the  milk  and  scattered  it  to  the  four  winds.  The 
tyranny  of  1685  made  possible,  perhaps  made  inevitable,  the  Revo- 
lution and  the  anarchy  of  1793. 

In  England  Presbyterian  history  is  in  part  a  court  Drama. 
Henry  VIII,  keen  for  money,  wives  and  pleasure,  had  nothing 
to  hope  for  from  Presbyterian  Protestantism.  Romanism,  with 
its  rich  monasteries  and  Cathedral  foundations,  was  to  Henry 
unendurable,  but  Presbyterianism,  with  its  rigid  morality  forbid- 
ding pillage,  groundless  divorce  and  gross  pleasures  of  every 
sort,  was  to  Henry  altogether  detestable.  Elizabeth  felt  like  her 
father,  that  Presbyterianism  was  too  independent  for  her  purpose. 
The  clergy  who  refused  to  wear  Romish  vestments,  "Idolatrous 
gear,"  they  called  them,  excited  her  contemptuous  anger.  James  I 
was  convinced  that  the  stability  of  his  throne  depended  on 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  Episcopacy.  "No  bishop, 
no  King,"  he  said.  Charles  I  looked  upon  Presbyterianism  as  the 
most  dangerous  of  his  foes,  and  tried  every  conceivable  plan  for 
its  extermination.     He  felt  with  Dryden, 

"Presbytery  in   its  pestilential   zeal, 
Can  flourish  only  in  a  common  weal." 


In  both  Scotland  and  England  the  Presbyterian  Clergy  were 
deprived  of  their  churches.  The  people  were  imprisoned  and 
persuaded  with  the  thumb-screw  and  the  rack  to  give  up  their 
foolish  Presbyterian  prejudices.  The  act  of  uniformity  in  1549 
required  consent  "To  all  and  everything  prescribed  in  and  by  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer."  Two  thousand  clerg\'men,  led  by 
Baxter  and  Calamy,  were  ejected  from  their  pastorates  as  Crom- 
well ejected  the  members  of  the  House  of  Commons  from  West- 
minster Hall,  with  a  "Get  you  gone."  But  in  1642  the  long  Parlia- 
ment abolished  Episcopacy.  An  assembly  was  called  at  West- 
minster in  1643,  composed  of  ten  Lords,  twenty  Commoners,  one 
hundred  and  twenty-one  ministers,  and  a  Confession  and  Cate- 
chism were  issued  by  Parliamentary  authority.  Upon  the  return 
of  Charles  K  by  the  invitation  of  the  deluded  Presbyterians, 
the  Presbyterian  Church  had  been  established  in  England  for 
seventeen  years.  Charles  immediately  set  to  work  to  undermine 
the  church  he  hated,  in  part  it  may  be  because  of  his  obligation 
to  it.  His  efforts,  with  those  of  his  successor,  were  sadly  suc- 
cessful. 

In  Scotland  Presbyterian  history  is  an  Epic  of  the  people. 
The  men  and  women  who  move  with  stately  and  dignified  step 
across  the  stage  might  have  stepped  out  an  hour  ago  from  the 
XI  Chapter  of  Hebrews.  We  hear,  as  we  listen,  the  roar  of 
muskets,  the  sharp  crack  of  pistols,  the  fierce  clashing  of  swords, 
as  Cavalier  and  Covenanter  meet  on  the  battlefield.  On  the  great 
canvas  of  Scottish  history  moves  a  medley  of  figures  which,  once 
seen,  can  never  be  forgotten.  A  beautiful  Queen  weeps  and 
wrings  her  white  hands  in  which  she  is  deliberately  and  cunningly 
crushing  the  religious  liberties  of  a  people  that  in  her  French  eyes 
are  half  fantastic,  half  barbarian.  A  preacher  who  "never  feared 
the  face  of  man"  makes  his  pulpit  and  his  monarch  tremble,  as  he 
thunders  out  the  righteousness  and  wrath  of  God.  A  stool  goes 
flying  through  the  air,  flung  by  the  hand  of  a  fearless  servant  girl, 
which  misses  the  head  of  the  Dean  of  Edinburgh,  but  fatally 
wounds  the  system  he  represents.  In  the  church  yard  of  Gray 
Friars  a  solemn  league  and  covenant  is  signed  in  blood,  and  sealed 
before  many  weeks  have  passed,  by  the  martyrdom  of  the  signers. 
Those  who  had  refused  to  make  the  responses  to  Archbishop 
Lord's  printed  prayers,  heard  the  responses  to  their  own  petitions 
in  the  roar  of  Claverhouse's  muskets.  Eighteen  thousand  men 
and  women  laid  down  their  lives  for  the  cause  to  which  they  had 
pledged  them.  .It  was  not  till  the  Revolution  of  1688  in  England 


had  driven  a  Romanist  from  the  throne  and  had  replaced  him  with 
a  Dutch  Puritan,  that  Scotland  was  at  last  free.  "If  the  Revolu- 
tion had  produced  no  other  effect  than  that  of  freeing  the  Scots 
from  the  yoke  of  an  establishment  they  detested  and  giving  them 
one  to  which  they  were  attached,  it  would  have  been  one  of  the 
happiest  event  in  our  history,"  says  Lord  Macaulay. 

In  America,  Presbyterian  history  is  for  the  most  part  plain 
prose.  Presbyterians  came  here  because  they  were  not  wanted 
at  home,  and  there  was  nowhere  else  for  them  to  go.  "The  history 
of  American  colonization  is  a  history  of  the  crimes  of  Europe," 
and  the  history  of  American  evangelization  is  of  the  same  sort. 
The  Presbyterians  who  came  to  the  New  World  in  the  17th  and 
i8th  Centuries  were  the  living  witnesses  of  crimes  against  liberty 
and  humanity  in  the  Old  World.  Germans  from  the  Palatinate, 
devastated  by  the  armies  of  Louis  XIV,  Huguenots  from  tortured 
and  heart-broken  France;  English,  Scotch  and  Irish  from  be- 
wildered and  distressed  Great  Britain  left  their  homes  under  a  pro- 
pulsion they  could  not  resist.  Every  ship  that  crossed  the  sea 
brought  such  colonists  to  our  shores. 

In  the  first  Presb\'tery  organized  in  Philadelphia  in  1706  the 
first  name  is  that  of  Francis  Makemie,  a  Scotch-Irishman.  Of 
the  seven  members  of  which  that  Presbytery  was  composed,  all 
except  one  were  from  the  Old  World.  Jedediah  Andrews,  a  Har- 
vard graduate  and  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Philadelphia,  was 
the  only  native-born  American  of  them  all.  From  the  outstart 
American  Presbyterians  were  restless  under  all  yokes,  whether 
ecclesiastical  or  political.  The  Mechlenburg  declaration  of  1775, 
"We  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  a  free  and  independent  people," 
was  the  voice  of  which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
the  echo.  Through  the  long,  and  often  times  hopeless  struggle 
to  achieve  that  independence  which  had  been  so  stoutly  claimed, 
the  Presbyterian  clergy  and  laity  never  wavered  in  their  allegiance 
to  the  cause  of  liberty.  While  Presbyterian  history  in  our  own 
land  is  far  less  dramatic  and  thrilling  than  in  France,  England  or 
Scotland,  here  the  greatest  gains  have  been  made,  and  here,  per- 
haps, is  to  be  the  largest  field  of  usefulness. 

The  history  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  both  the  Old  World 
and  New  should  be  an  unceasing  inspiration.  The  Cathedrals  of 
Europe — St.  Paul's,  the  Abbey,  Notre  Dame,  Cologne,  Milan, 
Florence,  must  always  be  an  inspiration  to  the  architect.  There 
genius  told  its  dreams  in  poems  of  stone.  The  masterpieces  of 
Angelo,  Raphael,  Angelico,  Di  Vinci  are  an  unceasing  inspiration 


to  the  artist.  What  splendid  powers  belong  to  the  men  who  could 
mix  common  colors,  and  with  a  simple  brush  create  half-Divine 
figures  to  look  down  with  glowing  eyes  on  a  dull  world !  To  feel 
the  electric  discharge  from  Dante's  poem  and  Shakespeare's  plays 
and  Milton's  word  picture  of  Paradise  Lost  is  an  inspiration  to 
every  man  who  is  conscious  of  creative  power  in  his  own  soul,  or 
who  is  capable  of  appreciating  the  creative  power  in  other  souls. 
Such  poems  and  plays  make  it  certain  that  in  the  past  there  were 
Prometheans  who  knew  how  to  bring  fire  from  heaven,  and  so  to 
compound  it  with  human  thoughts  and  words  that  the  centuries 
are  powerless  to  dim  its  glow  or  chill  its  heat. 

But  to  recall  the  lives,  struggles,  torments,  persecutions,  tri- 
umphs of  Waldensees  and  Huguenots,  of  Covenanters  and  Puri- 
tans, remembering  that  their  faith  is  ours,  that  their  blood  courses 
through  our  veins,  is  to  feel  that  to  be  weak  and  pusillanimous, 
supine  or  dull,  timid  and  subservient  to  the  false  and  untrue, 
though  wrong  be  enthroned  and  ensceptered,  is  to  be  traitors  to 
the  past,  is  to  prove  ourselves  base  sons  of  heroic  sires.  "When 
all  else  has  failed,  when  patriotism  has  covered  its  face,  and 
human  courage  has  broken  down,  and  intellect  has  yielded  with 
a  smile  or  a  sigh,  content  to  philosophize  in  the  closet,  the  slavish 
form  of  faith  called  Calvinism  has  borne  ever  an  inflexible  front 
to  illusion  and  mendacity,  and  has  preferred  rather  to  be  ground 
to  powder  like  flint  than  to  bend  before  violence  or  to  melt  under 
enervating  temptation,"  are  the  words  of  James  Anthony  Froude, 
a  historian  by  no  means  prejudiced  in  favor  of  Presbyterianism. 

Our  history  is  a  pledge  as  well  as  an  inspiration.  We  are 
pledged  by  our  origin  and  growth  to  Catholicity,  Universality, 
Comprehensiveness.  A  church  compounded  of  so  many  elements 
as  is  ours,  must  necessarily  be  non-partisan  and  non-sectarian. 
All  international  animosities  between  the  Irish  and  the  English 
must  disappear  in  the  close  fellowship  of  our  ecclesiastical  unity. 
Sectarian  narrowness,  too,  must  be  impossible  when  such  diverse 
phases  of  thought  and  experience  as  are  represented  in  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  America.  To  be  eflfective  as  a  persecuting  church 
an  ecclesiastical  organization  must  be  homogeneous.  Its  clergy 
and  laity  must  have  the  same  blood  in  their  veins,  and  must  be 
inheritors  of  the  same  traditions,  any  divergence  from  which  will 
strike  those  who  hold  tightly  to  them  as  an  offence,  inexcusable 
and  unendurable,  deserving  censure  and  excommunication.  With 
the  mixed  nationalities  of  which  our  communion  is  composed,  with 
the  conditions  varying  through  every  phase  of  Protestantism,  we 


i 


can  never  be  anything  but  inclusive  and  comprehensive.  Not  only 
may  we  say  with  Tennyson  in  welcoming  Queen  Alexandra, 
"Saxon  and  Norman  and  Dane  are  we,"  but  we  may  add,  "Ger- 
man and  French,  English,  Irish  and  Scotch  are  we."  "God  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  the  earth."  "Little  children, 
love  one  another." 

Our  history  pledges  us  to  loyalty  as  well  as  to  catholicity.  We 
are  pledged  to  loyalty  to  our  country.  "He  prostrated  himself  in 
the  dust  before  his  maker,  but  he  set  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  his 
king,"  was  said  of  the  Puritan.  Neither  he  nor  his  Presbyterian 
brother  was  ever  charged  with  setting  his  foot  on  his  country's 
claims.  He  who  set  his  foot  on  the  neck  of  kings  in  the  Old  World 
was  the  first  to  bow  his  head  to  the  justly  constituted  authority 
of  the  people  in  the  New  World.  This  is  a  part  of  his  creed.  It  is 
in  his  blood.  He  can  never  be  a  partisan,  but  he  must  always  be 
a  patriot.  The  Presbyterian  will  be  loyal  as  well  to  the  Home, 
the  Sabbath,  and  the  Scriptures,  which  must  always  be  for  him  the 
final  test  of  every  theological  system,  confession  of  faith  and  creed. 

Our  history  pledges  us  also  to  liberty,  the  most  perfect  liberty 
ever  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  most  perfect  loyalty.  The  Pres- 
byterian Church  is  liberal  in  the  terms  it  offers  its  own  members. 
It  asks  of  them  assent  to  no  theory  of  inspiration,  to  no  creed  or 
confession.  "The  Presbyterian  Church  must  never  demand  more 
for  admission  to  her  membership  than  is  demanded  for  admission 
to  Heaven.  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved,"  insisted  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  of  Princeton.  The  Presby- 
terian Church  is  also  liberal  in  its  treatment  of  other  denomina- 
tions. It  unfrocks  no  clergy,  it  unchurches  no  communion.  It  is 
liberal,  too,  in  its  forms  of  worships.  It  permits  the  use  of  all, 
but  commands  the  use  of  none.  To  every  church  Session  the 
power  is  committed  to  decide  the  form  of  service  for  that  particu- 
lar church.  Our  church  clasps  in  her  wide  arms  Cathedrals  like 
those  of  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh  and  summer  tents  like  those  of 
New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  The  most  elaborate  and 
the  most  simple  services  are  equally  Presbyterian  if  the  Session 
so  decides. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  should  be  the  church  of  joyous 
confidence  in  God.  With  clear  eyes  the  church  sees  her  little 
bark  often  tempest  -  tossed,  but  borne  ever  onward  in  the 
great  gulf  stream  of  God's  immutable  purpose.  That  stream 
sweeps  forward  through  the  ages,  toward  the  far-off  Divine  event, 
"when  He  shall  gather  together  in  one  all  things  in  Christ,  which 


are  in  heaven  and  which  are  in  earth,  even  in  Him."  Often  our 
efforts  seem  unavailing :  often  the  tide  ebbs,  but  the  onward  move- 
ment is  unimpeded.  The  hosts  of  heaven  are  already  singing  the 
song  of  triumph.  Who  that  believes  in  that  hour  can  be  timid? 
Who  that  sees  the  gleam  of  that  coming  glory  can  be  sad? 
Whether  ours  is  to  be  the  church  of  the  future,  the  church  of 
America  or  not,  does  not  depend  on  the  validity  of  our  orders,  or 
the  valor  and  splendid  heroism  of  our  Presbyterian  ancestors,  nor 
on  the  clear  logic  of  our  Confession  or  Creed.  Neither  does  it  de- 
pend on  our  catholicity  or  liberality,  but  on  the  spirit  of  our 
ministers  and  members.  "The  church  which  to-day  effectually 
denounces  intemperance,  and  the  licentiousness  of  social  life,  the 
cruelty  or  the  indifference  of  the  rich  to  the  poor,  and  the  prosti- 
tution of  political  office,  will  become  the  real  church  of  America," 
said  the  late  eloquent  Bishop  of  Massachusetts.  The  church  that 
goes  further  still,  and  not  only  denounces  vice  and  error,  but  incul- 
cates virtue  and  truth,  the  church,  the  teaching  of  whose  ministers, 
and  the  lives  of  whose  pastors  and  people  alike,  remind  the  world 
less  of  the  Puritan,  the  Huguenot,  or  the  Lutheran,  than  of  the 
Nazarene,  whose  touch  heals  the  wounds  that  others  have  made, 
whose  voice  comforts  the  hearts  that  others  have  hurt,  and  whose 
hand  raises  from  the  dust  and  mire  those  whom  others  have  thrust 
aside  and  thrown  down — will  be  the  Church  of  Christ  in  this  land, 
chosen  of  God  to  be  the  peacemaker  and  the  almoner  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth. 


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